Inter lingual typewriter

ABSTRACT

A interlingual typewriter having an assembly for aligning a type character on a type drum for engagement by a striker. The drum is slidably mounted on a roller platen removably rotatably mounted on the typewriter chassis. A first keyboard includes a plurality of keys for actuating a mechanism to axially align the drum on the roller platen. Another keyboard includes a plurality of keys for rotating the roller platen to arcuately align the roller platen and hence the drum. The striker is actuated through a mechanism operated by the keys of the first keyboard.

[ July 3,1973

United States Patent [191 Luk [54] INTER LINGUAL TYPEWRITER Primary Examiner-Robert E. Pulfrey Assistant Examiner-R. T. Rader Inventor: Man Shan Luk, Brooklyn, N.Y. Assignee: lnterllngual Cultural Machinery,

Attorney-Kenneth S. Goldtarb lnc., New York, N.Y.

57 ABSTRACT A interlingual typewriter having an assembl 221 Filed: Apr. 5, 1972 Appl. No.: 241,250

typewriter y of keys for [52] US. 197/1 A, 197/49 chassis. A first keyboard includes a pluralit actuating a mechanism to axial] 4 roller platen. Another keyboa [51] Int. B41] 3/50 y align the drum on the rd includes a plurality of [58] Field of Search 197/1 A, 9, ll, 49; 178/34 e e hmh 'vct na m .w s M n. r 6 l k mfl mam ey mhb T o d n m Mme .mdn. pin-v h m i n mma eew hh t SMm :maa t i mwga O O 3010 tm tk w m kmmfi AA H 77 99 W: MAI mm S: S H mTmm e sQ rTaa .mSKK e R 2 99 NHH U22 67 7 r x 22 9 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PAIENTEUJUL3 ms SHEEIZBF4 PAIENIEDJuLs 191a sumaura FIG. 6

INTER LINGUAL TYPEWRITER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to typewriters and more particularly to a mechanical typewriter capable of being used in the preparation of documents requiring multiple languages and alphabets while being particularly adapted for use with oriental languages.

2. Description of the Prior Art In the past various typewriters have been devised for use with oriental languages but these typewriters have been either ineffective in operation or so expensive to manufacture as to preclude commercial exploitation. The oriental languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, for the most part require upwards of 3,000 or 4,000 characters for even a rudimentary vocabulary.

Many of these characters have similar portions. Accordingly, in the prior attempts to construct an adequate typewriter attempts have been made to utilize more than one key to piece together a character through several strikings of portions of a character. An example of one of the partial solutions of the problem in this manner is set forth in US. Pat. Nos. 2,613,794 and 2,613,795.

However, this resulted in many distinct disadvantages including alignment problems, cutting of the paper through multiple strikes, difficulty besitting the typist to recognize how a particular character could be constructed from the multiple strikes, and because of the extreme sophistication of the oriental languages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION a The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior multiple language typewriters by employing an effective assembly for aligning a character with a striker in such manner that anyone of several thousand characters provided on a drum can be aligned with a striker in a convenient manner.

The construction of the invention features an assembly for aligning a type character for engagement by the striker of a interlingual typewriter.- The basic elements of the invention include a roller platen rotatably mounted on a chassis and provided with a slidably mounted drum thereon. The drum may be moved from side to side for longitudinal axial alignment thereof with the striker. The yoke is actuated by the keys of a keyboard including 80 keys for 80 different positions of the drum relative to the strikes. 50 keys are provided for rotating the roller platen to any selected one of 50 different radial positions of the roller platen and hence of the drum. Thus 4,000 characters on a drum can be easily aligned with the striker of the typewriter.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a single typewriter capable of effective use in typing a multilingual composition while also being adaptable for typing oriental languages, and which by simple substitution of drums having type characters thereon can be used in conjunction with substantially all of the written languages of the world.

A further object of the invention is to provide a typewriter which has the capability of simplifying multilingual composition process, such as translation composition, and bilingual newspapers, magazines, documents and dictionaries.

An additional object of the invention is to provide an interchangeable typing drum which facilitates changing the capabilities of the typewriter from one language to another with little effort in a minimum period of time.

A yet further object of this invention is to provide means for facilitating changing the capabilities of the typewriter from one group of languages to another group thereof without any effort, except in the case of the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.

Still further objects and features of the invention reside in the provision of a interlingual typewriter which can employ various sizes of sheet or roll paper, is economical to manufacture and utilize which is of a convenient table top size, and which can be of an enormous aid in communication thus enhancing cultural, scientific, and educational relationships between the various people of the world.

These, together with the various ancillary objects and features of the invention which will become apparent as the following description proceeds, are attained by this interlingual typewriter, a preferred embodiment of which is shown in the accompanying drawings, by way of example only, wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a interlingual typewriter constructed in accordance with the concepts of this invention and particularly illustrating the keyboards, roller platen, and the type drum;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the roller platen and type drum, and illustrating the means for axially and longitudinally aligning the type drum;

FIG. 3 is a transversed sectional view of the roller platen and type drum taken along the plane of line 3-3 in FIG. 2, particularly illustrating the manner of slidably mounting the type drum on the roller platen;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the plane of line 4-4 in FIG. 2, illustrating the manner in which the roller platen is mounted on the chassis;

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the manner in which the keys of one keyboard are utilized to index the roller platen by rotation thereof in a predetermined amount to arcuately align the type drum;

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the manner in which the keys of another keyboard are utilized to index the type drum by sliding the type drum to left or right to longitudinally align the type drum;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view illustrating the crank mechanism associated with the keys of FIG. 7 utilized to actuate the yoke to move the type drum for longitudinal illustrating the slotted guide means;

FIG. 8 is a schematic elevational view of the mechanism for actuating the striker and the relationship between the striker and the type drum, and further illustrating the manner in which an already typewritten character can be viewed by the eye of the beholder;

I and FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view of a detail of the vane used as part of the mechanism for actuating the striker.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With continuing reference to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate similar parts throughout the various views, reference numeral 20 generally designates a interlingual typewriter in accordance with the conceptsof the invention. The typewriter 20 includes a chassis 22 having two keyboards 24 and 26. The keyboard 24 includes 50 keys for use in rotating a drum 28 mounted on roller platen 30 to a predetermined position. The keyboard 26 includes 80 keys for use in longitudinally aligning the drum 28 on the platen 30 in a predetermined position. The drum has 50 rows of 80 type letters, numbers or other indicia 32 thereon in one or more languages. The type may be molded, cast, bonded to, mechanically secured to or etched on the drum 28 in any convenient manner.

In FIGS. 2 through 4 the platen 30 is illustrated as having an opposed pair of longitudinally extending grooves 34 and 36 therein. The drum 28 has a pair of tongues 38 and 40 which slidably fit in the grooves 34 and 36 thereby mounting the drum 28 on the platen 30. The drum 28 is provided with circular flanges 29 and 31 at the ends thereof. The chassis is provided with a pair of opposed sockets 42 and 44 for rotatably mounting the platen 30. The ends 46 and 48 of the platen 30 are concave. As shown in FIG. 4, there is a threaded stud 50 threadedly secured to the end 46 of the platen. The stud 50 has a bifuricated end 52. An end piece 54 having a stub axle 56 is secured by a pin 58 to the bifurcated end 52. The stub axle 56 is journalled in the socket 42. An end piece 60 is mounted in a similar manner to the end piece 54. A gear 62 having a plurality of gear teeth thereon is provided as part of the end piece 54.

The keyboard 24 includes 50 keys 24a, 24x, etc. each of which are suitably pivotally mounted on the chassis 22 by rods 64a, 64x, etc. and urged by springs 66a, 66x, etc. to a raised position. The ends of the keys are provided with cam engaging end portions 68a, 68x etc., which engage cams 70a 70):, etc. each of different shape or size and each cam 70a, 70:: etc. being fixedly secured on a shaft 72 rotatably mounted on the chasis 22. A sector gear 74 having a number of teeth 76 corresponding to the number of keys 24a, 24x, etc. and cams a, 70x etc. is fixedly mounted on the shaft 72 and may preferably be integral with a cam 70a. The teeth 76 mesh with gear 62. The sector gear 78 is biased by spring 78 connected thereto and to the chassis maintaining the respective cams 70a, 70:: etc. in engagement with keys ends 68 a, 68x, etc.

The keyboard 26 includes 80 keys 26a, etc. which are the means for axially locating the drum 28 longitudinally of the platen 30. The type 32 on the drum are arranged in rows of 80 letters, characters, numbers, symbols, indicia or the like so that the 50 rows of 80 amount to 4,000 separate type 32 on each removable drum 28. The mechanism for adjusting the drum 28 so that a specific type 32 is in alignment with the striker 80, FIG. 8, is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. Rotatably mounted on shafts 82 and 84 are cylinders 86 and 88. Fixedly connected to the cylinders 86 and 88 are cams 86a, 86):, etc. and 88a, 88x, etc. which are biased by springs 90 and 92. The key 26a has depending from its lever 96a a detent 98a which engages cam 86a to rotate the cylinder 86. Each other key is likewise provided with a similar parts as key 26a thereby rotating either cylinder 86 or 88 a predetermined amount. Fixed to cylinders 86 and 88 are fingers 100 and 102 to which wires 104 and 106 or suitable rods are attached. Fixed to the chassis 22 are slotted guides 108 and 110. The key 260 is pivotally mounted on a shaft 112 so that manual depression of the key 26a will cause upwardly extending stop 1160 to extend through the slot 1084 and upwardly extending element 118a to extend through slot a.

A yoke 120 is provided having arms 122 and 124 provided with bifurcated ends 126 and 128 which engage the drum flanges 29 and 31 as can be seen in FIG. 2. The yoke 120 has a limit member 130 engageable with the stops such as stop 116a.

Pivotally mounted on shafts 132 and 134 fixed to the chassis 22 are substantially L-shaped cranks 136 and 138 having crank heads 140 and 142 engageable with the arms 122 and 124 respectively of the yoke 120.

The cranks 136 and 138 are urged by springs I46 and 148 to a position out of engagement with the arms 122 and 124. The wires 104 and 106 are attached to cranks 136 and 138.

The element 118a when it extends through the slot 1100 will engage a vane 150 fixed on a shaft 152 which is journalled on the chassis 22. A pair of ears 152 are fixed on the vane 150 to which is pivotally attached a crank lever 154 which is pivoted to a crank arm 156 fixed to a shaft 158 to which the striker arm 80 is also fixedly attached. The striker arm has a striker head 81 mounted in a position behind the drum 28 and vertically positioned well above the ax is of the drum 28, so that after the striker head is actuated and drives a sheet of paper P against a particular indicia which has been aligned with a striker head, the character printed on the sheet of paper P can be easily seen.

The typewriter 20 is equipped with a carriage mechanism, paper feeding mechanism, spacer bars, and ribbon mechanism of conventional construction. On the front face of the chassis 22 are mounting assemblies 182 for alphabet and symbol cards corresponding to the letters and indicia on the drum 28 being used.

In operation one of the keys 24a of keyboard 24 is depressed which in turn will actuate cam 70a and pivot sector gear 74 to rotate gear 62 to rotate the drum. Then one of the keys 26a of keyboard 26 will be depressed causing cam 86a to be depressed rotating the cylinder 86. This will cause finger 100 to pull on wire 104 rotating crank 136 and causing head 140 to move yoke 120 to a position where the stop 116a will engage limit member 130 axially aligning the drum so that the striker head will be actuated to push the paper P against the indicia 32.

A inked ribbon or sheet may be used between the indicia 32 and the striker head 81.

Of course, when other keys of the keyboard 26 are depressed the cylinder 88 will be activated actuating crank 138. Thus, the drum may be moved to left or right through use of respective keys of keyboard 26 and the width of the drum is slightly less than one half the width of the roller platen 30.

A latitude of modification, substitution and change is intended in the foregoing disclosure, and in some instances, some features of the present invention may be employed without a corresponding use of other features.

I claim:

1. An assembly for aligning a type character an interlingual typewriter having a chassis; comprising a roller platen rotatably mounted on said chassis, a drum having type characters thereon, a striker for engaging said type characters, said drum being slidably mounted on said platen, a yoke engaging said drum, a pair of cranks rotatably mounted on said chassis and engageable with said yoke, a first keyboard including a plurality of first keys, means interconnecting said first keys with said cranks for selectively rotating said cranks for engaging said yoke and for moving said drum longitudinally of said roller platen, a gear on said roller platen, a second keyboard including a plurality of second keys, gear means on said chassis engaging said gear for rotating said gear and said roller platen, and cam operating means interconnecting said second keys with said gear means for operating said gear means to rotate said drum to an aligned position.

2. An assembly according to claim 1, including a first guide mounted on said chassis and having a plurality of slots therethrough, stops on said first set of keys extendable through said slots and a limit member on said yoke selectively engageable with said stops to selectively limit the sliding movement of said drum.

3. An assembly according to claim 1, including flanges on the end of said drum, said yoke having bifurcated arms engaging said flanges.

4. An assembly according to claim 2, including a striker mounted for pivotal movement relative to said drum, and striker actuating means connected to said first keys for actuating said striker.

5. An assembly according to claim 4, including second guide means on said chassis, said first keys including elements extendable through said second guide means.

6. An assembly according to claim 5, wherein said striker actuating means includes a vane engageable by said elements for pivoting thereof, a crank lever pivoted to said vane, a shaft having a crank arm attached thereto, said crank lever being pivoted to said crank arm, said" striker being secured to said shaft.

7. An assembly according to claim 4, wherein said striker extends above the axis of said drum and extends behind drum.

8. An assembly according to claim 2, including flanges on the end of said drum, said yoke having bifurcated arms engaging said flanges, a striker mounted for pivotal movement relative to said drum, and striker actuating means connected to said first keys for actuating said striker, said striker extending above and behind the axis of said drum.

9. An assembly according to claim 10, including second guide means on said chassis, said first keys including elements extendable through said second guide means, said striker actuating means including a vane engageable by said elements for pivoting thereof, a crank lever pivoted to said vane a shaft rotatably mounted on said chassis, a crank arm attached to said shaft, said crank lever being pivoted to said crank arm, 

1. An assembly for aligning a type character an interlingual typewriter having a chassis; comprising a roller platen rotatably mounted on said chassis, a drum having type characters thereon, a striker for engaging said type characters, said drum being slidably mounted on said platen, a yoke engaging said drum, a pair of cranks rotatably mounted on said chassis and engageable with said yoke, a first keyboard including a plurality of first keys, means interconnecting said first keys with said cranks for selectively rotating said cranks for engaging said yoke and for moving said drum longitudinally of said roller platen, a gear on said roller platen, a second keyboard including a plurality of second keys, gear means on said chassis engaging said gear for rotating said gear and said roller platen, and cam operating means interconnecting said second keys with said gear means for operating said gear means to rotate said drum to an aligned position.
 2. An assembly according to claim 1, including a first guide mounted on said chassis and having a plurality of slots therethrough, stops on said first set of keys extendable through said slots and a limit member on said yoke selectively engageable with said stops to selectively limit the sliding movement of said drum.
 3. An assembly according to claim 1, including flanges on the end of said drum, said yoke having bifurcated arms engaging said flanges.
 4. An assembly according to claim 2, including a striker mounted for pivotal movement relative to said drum, and striker actuating means connected to said first keys for actuating said striker.
 5. An assembly according to claim 4, including second guide means on said chassis, said first keys including elements extendable through said second guide means.
 6. An assembly according to claim 5, wherein said striker actuating means includes a vane engageable by said elements for pivoting thereof, a crank lever pivoted to said vane, a shaft having a crank arm attached thereto, said crank lever being pivoted to said crank arm, said striker being secured to said shaft.
 7. An assembly according to claim 4, wherein said striker extends above the axis of said drum and extends behind drum.
 8. An assembly according to claim 2, including flanges on the end of said drum, said yoke having bifurcated arms engaging said flanges, a striker mounted for pivotal movement relative to said drum, and striker actuating means connected to said first keys for actuating said striker, said striker extending above and behind the axis of said drum.
 9. An assembly according to claim 10, including second guide means on said chassis, said first keys including elements extendable through said second guide means, said striker actuating means including a vane engageable by said elements for pivoting thereof, a crank lever pivoted to said vane a shaft rotatably mounted on said chassis, a crank arm attached to said shaft, said crank lever being pivoted to said crank arm, said striker being secured on said shaft. 